I thought it was an excellent article IF one looked more critically (objectively) at Parts I and V.

Part I: He had success with the one book via trade publishing; he didn't with the next book. The length of time involved in negotiating for the second book doesn't mean it will take that long for all authors, nor should one ignore the fact that the reasons for the disagreements were not really addressed. We don't know if the publisher was being unreasonable or if was the agent or even the author himself. So really, he could have simply said things didn't work out for the second book, so yada yada yada.

Part V: His statement about authors not earning out their advance was correct - his conclusion (that it didn't sell as many as the publisher expected) is incorrect. The fact that authors don't earn out their advance really means that publishers are very good at estimating sales, and, in fact, the advance accurately reflected the estimated sales. If the author get royalties above the advance, it means the book sold BETTER than expected.

But Parts II through IV were very good, because he was telling writers "Put your Author Hat away and put on your Publisher Hat" - a bit of advice that, sadly, too many SPs ignore.

"The trick of the fiction writer is the beautiful lie..." Thomas Fox Averill

all y'all need to look at the TYPE of book and HOW it was usedthose books can do very well with SP

but this is common knowledge among consultants who write this sort of bookit is totally different from any fiction and most how to bookswith different strategy and definition of success

he is correct about the profityou make a lot more with SPand since you have to do the marketing all yourself unless your name is rowling or pattersonthen why not keep all the profit when you did all the work

also note he printed copies which make them a LOT CHEAPER and better quality than using PODthere is a risk there so you better be prepared to actually go out and sell them but with this type of book there are so many other sales channels that work well and more better than what fiction has to use

of course you need a good book aimed at a known target market that needs the information

he is correct that this type of book is to give the author cred for lectures and consulting and sell their services so any profit is fantastic even if it is not a best seller

note the book was to sell seminars and classes not sell books per se also he got the blurbs to help sell the book too

he helped sell the book with related articles and podcastsso you need to have an audience already or be prepared to build it slowly over a lot of time

he targeted reviews and bloggers and gave them review copiesthat costs money and takes a lot of time and effort most authors dont do

note he planned ahead for sales channels and made the book a good fit for airport saleswhere many people who want this sort of information go through and can see it at a gift stand

this works all the time for people who write this sort of book as an adjunct to their job as a consultant and selling services

[quote="williamadams"]thanks for admitting i was correct about publishing and the economicsmost books lose money or barely break even profit comes from the best sellers

when they dont earn out an advance then most of the time the publisher also lost money on that book and made up for it with their megahits

and they wont be asked to submit another book[/quote]

Your comment has absolutely no relation to what I said, and thus I was "admitting" absolutely nothing about your being "correct". Try actually reading what I wrote. I stated that advances are typically not earned out because publishers are very good estimators of sales - in other words, they are paying the author an advance which matches what they think his/her total royalties would be. How on earth you decided that meant "most books lose money" is beyond imagination. Do you even understand what an advance is, or how books are priced (like, including costs)? But go ahead - the more you post about publishing, the more you prove you have no idea how it works.

"The trick of the fiction writer is the beautiful lie..." Thomas Fox Averill

[quote="ostarella"][quote="williamadams"]thanks for admitting i was correct about publishing and the economicsmost books lose money or barely break even profit comes from the best sellers

when they dont earn out an advance then most of the time the publisher also lost money on that book and made up for it with their megahits

and they wont be asked to submit another book[/quote]

Your comment has absolutely no relation to what I said, and thus I was "admitting" absolutely nothing about your being "correct". Try actually reading what I wrote. I stated that advances are typically not earned out because publishers are very good estimators of sales - in other words, they are paying the author an advance which matches what they think his/her total royalties would be. How on earth you decided that meant "most books lose money" is beyond imagination. Do you even understand what an advance is, or how books are priced (like, including costs)? But go ahead - the more you post about publishing, the more you prove you have no idea how it works.[/quote]================

rotflmao

you admitted it in print and now you are denying it

unless you changed what you typed beforeyou said most books dont earn out the advance

so you proved my statement in the other discussionno matter how much you try to spin it now

of course i know what advances areand they do not come anywhere near the expected sales estimate for the bookbut even so they still rarely break even

you need to look at the actual sales statistics

this is a VERY long tailed phenomenon90% of books lose big timesome break evena few make it big

books that sell in the hundreds and less are big money losersthose in the low thousands may break even

you have to hit 10-20k and up to be a winnerand only a handful sell in the six figures to millions

i dont have to prove anything because i do KNOW

you are the one who thinks they know something about the economics of book publishing and you just did look silly when you contradicted the other discussion with your comments here

Okay. Point blank: I do not agree with your opinion that most books lose money. I did not say that and will never say that, and you can mix up the words I post any way you wish and it will not change the facts. I am past the point of patience with people who mutate facts to suit their agenda. So go ahead and live in your fantasy world where you are always right. (And there - I've given you four words to re-post with glee.)

"The trick of the fiction writer is the beautiful lie..." Thomas Fox Averill

[quote="ostarella"]Okay. Point blank: I do not agree with your opinion that most books lose money. I did not say that and will never say that, and you can mix up the words I post any way you wish and it will not change the facts. I am past the point of patience with people who mutate facts to suit their agenda. So go ahead and live in your fantasy world where you are always right. (And there - I've given you four words to re-post with glee.)[/quote]===========

we disagree on a lot of things

i know what i have seen experienced and researched

i will go with the evidence i have rather than your opinion

sorry you lost patience with yourselfyou need to get some true facts and not mutate anything